Walker stole Pence's economic policies, including WEDC (IEDC)!

Mike Pence helped Scott Walker, so Walker helped Pence prepare for VP debate. The Borg-like party of rugged like-minded individuals is beyond parody.  

Remember when Scott Walker beat up his Democratic opponent Mary Burke for plagiarizing her economic idea's? We all knew at the time this was just another case of projection.

The report below is shockingly similar to what Wisconsinites have been dealing with since Scott Walker became governor.  The mismanaged Walker travesty known as the "Wisconsin" Economic Development Corporation, is an outright copy of "Indiana's" Economic Development Corporation (IEDC). It even came with offshored jobs. See if any of the following sounds familiar, then compare below. INDY Star:

Since Pence became governor in 2013, the state has awarded millions of dollars in economic development incentives to companies that have moved production to foreign countries such as Mexico and China. Those production shifts have cost thousands of Hoosiers their jobs during Pence’s time in office.

An IndyStar analysis found that the Indiana Economic Development Corporation — which Pence leads — has approved $24 million in incentives to 10 companies that sent work to foreign countries. Of those incentives, nearly $8.7 million has been paid out so far.

During that same period, those companies terminated or announced layoffs of more than 3,800 Hoosier workers while shifting production to other countries, where labor tends to be far less expensive.

Compare: Scott Walker's WEDC, before he was fired as chairman...

Citizen Action of Wisconsin: Data kept by the U.S. Department of Labor shows that at least 11,331 Wisconsin workers have had their jobs outsourced to other countries the last five years since Governor Walker’s scandal ridden jobs agency, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), was launched July 1, 2011. This is a very low end estimate … It does not account for outsourcing to other states, or downsizing where it is not possible to prove the jobs landed in a foreign country or were impacted by global trade deals.

Wisconsin Manufacturing Wages Declining: Citizen Action of Wisconsin looked at the latest federal data, and found a startling decline in manufacturing wages in every Wisconsin metro area.
Real wages (adjusted for inflation) declined $1,430 between 2010 and 2015 - Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin: This data also directly challenges Governor Walker’s constant assertion that a co-called “skills gap” is the cause of Wisconsin’s economic woes. If manufacturers were really having problems finding skilled manufacturing workers, they would be raising wages, not lowering them. The state also lead the way in the largest drop in the middle class of all states.

Walker's Right-to-Work Hail Mary Miserable Failure, as Corporation with $22 billion in sales moves 93 more jobs to Mexico.

I know this has been said many times before, but really, if the following happened under a Democratic administration, they would be tared and feathered for life and we'd never hear the end of it.

But this is all about Scott Walker, and it never matters one bit if Walker, the chairman of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), allows jobs here to move to Mexico.

Hand it to WKOW's Greg Neumann for sticking with this story for so long. We're now seeing how important it was to pass right-to-work:

A global power systems management corporation that has received nearly $370,000 in tax incentives from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) since 2012 is shipping jobs from Wisconsin to Mexico for the second time in three years ... the elimination of 93 employees there ... laying off 163 employees at its Cooper Power Systems plant in Pewaukee in April 2013.  The company moved those jobs to Mexico as well. Eaton Corp. had $22.6 billion in sales in 2014. 

So it's not like they couldn't afford to keep the jobs in Wisconsin out of the goodness of their heart (supply side reasoning):



Today, this depressing job loss outlook finally got some press:

Wisconsin employers have already notified the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) of 3,543 layoffs that will happen in 2015, putting the state on pace to eclipse 10,000 for the year.

Surprisingly, the Walker administration doesn't seem too concerned. The only number Walker can't stop talking about is the 4.6% unemployment stat. Why republicans don't want to count those not participating in the search for jobs is anybodies guess, since it's always an issue when Obama's numbers are released.

Here's how the shocking headline story looked online:

Walker admits attack on Burke's supposed outsourcing is his way of "trying to have it about anything other than his record."

From the Journal Sentinel's Dan Bice, the Washington Post's Dan Balz, and now the State Journal’s Jessie Opoien, it’s important to point out how Scott Walker is covering up his own bad four year record with his all-out attack on Mary Burke. She supposedly outsourced jobs at Trek, even though she wasn’t there when Trek made that decision. By Walker’s own admission, he is intentionally trying to distract and cover-up his record.

Walker’s recent ad states: "Mary Burke: Job creator? Not so much."

Got it. So what's the real reason for bashing outsourcing?

Walker told the WaPo that President Barack Obama's outsourcing-related attacks on Republican candidate Mitt Romney were launched as a distraction from the president's "horrible" record. "The president’s team desperately does not want to run on his record, so they are desperately trying to have it about anything other than his record. He’s got to be forceful about fighting back.”

Political Strategy Clarified: Walker's scheme to attack Burke for "outsourcing jobs" is, in his own words, Walker "desperately trying to have it about anything other than his record."

Walker's WEDC recipient Offshores Workers, then doubles executive pay in 4 years!

Plexus Corporation is now denying they outsourced jobs just a week after receiving lots of cash from Scott Walker and his pay-to-play corporate sugar daddy the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.

WKOW: WEDC awarded Plexus Corp. of Neenah with tax credits of up to $2 million in 2011 and up to $15 million in 2012. Plexus has received $4.7 million in tax credits to this point. In July of 2012, Plexus announced it was laying off 116 workers from its Neenah facility.  The U.S. Department of Labor has since ruled those employees, as well as all Plexus employees laid off since December of 2011, are eligible to receive federal Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) benefits. 

WKOW's  Greg Neumann has an updated response from Plexus, and it doesn't match the official record.

Not only that, as Plexus shed 116 workers, CEO Dean Foate saw his compensation go from $2.1 million in 2009, to $4.1 million in 2013. And executive pay more than doubled, from $4.3 million in 2000 to $9.9 million in 2013. I'm assuming upper management didn't miss those 116 laying off workers:

WISGOP outsources Billboard Picture: Russian "Wisconsin" Miner?

Bumbling WISGOP president Joe Fadness stepped in it again, as only a “stand with Walker” supporter could. This is almost too laughable to believe. jsonline-Jason Silverstein:  

The Wisconsin Republican Party outsourced part of an advertisement against outsourcing jobs: The party bought space on several billboards throughout Wisconsin criticizing Democratic gubernatorial challenger Mary Burke for outsourcing jobs to China … But BuzzFeed reports that this miner is neither Wisconsinite nor Chinese immigrant — the photo is a stock image from Russian photographer Andrey Bortnikov, whose personal page identifies the miner as a current Russian citizen.

Admit it, with incompetence like this, there has to be illegal coordination between the Walker campaign and WISGOP:

A party representative said that the billboard ran for one day, Wednesday, and was removed.

With just the right measure of sarcastic aplomb:

Joe Zepecki, communications director for Burke's campaign, wrote in an email: "If Scott Walker had the same level of concern for Wisconsin workers than he has for Russian coal miners, maybe we wouldn't be dead last in the Midwest, tenth out of ten, in private sector job creation on his watch."

At Uppity Wisconsin, this bit of incredibly bad Walker outsourcing information reared its ugly head:

Doh! Scott Walker now adopts Mary Burke's position to stop WEDC funding to companies that Outsource Overseas.

It was way back on July 9th that Mary Burke made this statement about WEDC funding companies that outsourced jobs overseas: 

Burke calls that practice "appalling". "As Governor, I will insist that every WEDC award protects against the outsourcing of Wisconsin jobs and companies that don't live up to their end of the deal give back every tax dollar they received," said Burke in a statement released to 27 News.

Walker pledges to support Burke's Idea (that never occurred to him as WEDC Chairman): Fast forward to now, July 28, after Scott Walker tried to pin the outsourcing problem on Mary Burke. Walker suddenly behind Mary Burke’s pledge to stop WEDC funding to any company planning to outsource overseas:

Says it Scott, Burke was right!

WKOW; Gov. Scott Walker said he would support a proposal to prevent the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) from making financial awards to companies that outsource Wisconsin jobs. Gov. Walker said he thinks the change makes sense and probably should have been done long ago.

You think? And it took his Democratic challenger Mary Burke to draw the line. Democrats warned Walker that WEDC lacked the rules and regulations to make it function normally and responsibly? Guess who didn't listen? 

Walker's troublesome WEDC goes Dark, until after the Election!!!

Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation's chairman Scott Walker has an abysmal record for mismanagement and lost taxpayer money. Recently, we discovered two companies offshored jobs and laid 279 workers off after Walker gave them public funding.

It’s campaign magic for Mary Burke, who’s been reminding voters just how bad WEDC has been mismanaged by pretend “small businessman” Governor Walker. Not anymore.

After laughably “weighing the public’s right to government information against any potential harm to the public’s interest,” WEDC is about to dark. It's a media blackout.

In fact, Walker isn't even trying to hide his blatantly obvious intentions from Wisconsin voters, who I hope will be outraged. Note to the WSJ, this is not a page 5 story:

Walker’s office is no longer disclosing the names and phone numbers of companies that the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. is working with on economic incentive packages. The … legal counsel determined releasing the information could “wreak havoc” with WEDC’s mission of retaining and creating quality jobs in the state.

Below is every reason the public DOES have a right to know where their tax dollars are going, and more importantly, who’s buying influence:

“Harmful information could include, for example, that a business is considering relocating to or from Wisconsin, expanding or downsizing, moving its headquarters, shifting its focus to a new industry, developing a new technology, or experiencing a hardship,” the statement said. “If businesses hesitate or simply refuse to deal with WEDC because they fear disclosure of this information, the people of this state suffer the consequences.”

Why shouldn't businesses take the heat for accepting corporate welfare and government favors if what they’re doing would piss taxpayers off?

We’ll tell you After the Election: No, really, that's what Walker is saying. Walker is trying to eliminate any possible bad press from WEDC, at least until after the election:

“Because there may come a time when it will no longer harm these discussions if the businesses names are revealed, it may be possible that we will be able to release the names of these businesses at a later date,” the statement concluded.

You can't make this stuff up. And conservative voters, you're okay with Walker's calculated scheme? 

Summing it...

Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, disagreed with both arguments for withholding the information. “There is a public interest in knowing who the state is meeting with over subsidies. If you want money from us, you should be willing to accept that the public has a right to know it. There should be no question that at some point, the public has a right to this information. Already, we know if and when a corporation does get state support. There is also a public interest in knowing who the state says ‘no’ to.”

Walker told reporters Mitt Romney did not run for president based on his business experience.

Before I forget; During WPR's morning show, reporter Shawn Johnson played a clip of Scott Walker answering a question about the Wall Street Journal's criticism that he's using the same argument against Burke that Obama used against Romney-outsourcing to overseas countries.

Walker answered by saying Romney didn't run on his business experience.

Walker: "Mitt Romney did not run his campaign on the basis of his arguing his experience in the business world as a reason to vote for him. If he did, than I think it would be fair game to look at all the experience." 

I know, I nearly spit out my coffee. Even funnier still, the reporter played a Romney audio clip of him declaring how his business experience would make him a better president.

Walker's ridiculous lie, made in front of reporters who I'm sure still remember the presidential campaign, should be front page news. Why isn't it?

Here's WPR's Shawn Johnson:



The following shorter audio clip starts with Walker's comment and ends with Romney and then Johnson summing up Walker's big mistake. For those who can't resist playing it over and over:

WPR: Obama often blasted his Republican opponent for the time he spent running the private equity Bain Capital. At one point, he called Romney the “outsourcer in chief.”

In his autobiography, “Unintimidated,” Walker wrote: “I deplore the kind of character assassination the Obama camp used against Mitt Romney.”

Conservative Best Friends Digging Deeper into Alternate Reality.

I'm hoping the old saying, "time heals," is in play after our divisive presidential election. What happened in the last few months, calling reality based polls and jobs numbers a left wing conspiracy, set Republican voters up for a huge fall. Even my conservative friend in Milwaukee, who's is always a bit more critical of Republican politicians than most, called me out of the blue to rub the impending Romney/Ryan landslide in my face. It actually caught me by surprise.

Now when I talk to him, he doesn't want to hear anything that calls into question what he believes to be true.

So I thought this call from CJ, a WTDY listener, reflected pretty much my own conversations and disagreements. Just like my friend in Milwaukee, he heard things I never did; solutions offered up by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. He also heard that liberal Americans are takers. Just as surreal, because they pay attention to media that doesn't report the "other side," they are convinced Obama never offered any solutions, even though he has a whole bunch of times, including budget proposals.

But what Sly in the Morning explains to CJ is the underlying problem. It's the real reason why things never seem to get any better; the loss of good paying jobs due to outsourcing, offshoring and the movement to decrease employee hours. It has little to do with spending.



David Frum tells us all why conservatives are marginalizing themselves now and in the future, from Chris Matthews:

Dumb Ron Johnson Doesn't See a Problem with Outsourcing. He's the only one.

From Sly in the Morning, this amazing response (not so amazing really) from dumb Ron Johnson. Remember, Johnson loves Communist China's business climate.

This bill wasn't allowed to advance, to be debated, to ever see the light of day. Johnson has a problem with discussing anything.

With so many lost manufacturing jobs, it's reckless and uninformed to say outsourcing is not the reason were seeing sluggish job growth. Business regulation, the villain straw man created by Republicans to explain the Great Recession, didn't change during that time, when the worlds economy convulsed. It changed later to control an out of control Wall Street Banks.

RoJo advocates the country side for resources and turning business loose. It's a grand experiment not seen anywhere in the world, and could adversely effect hundreds of millions of people.

Archive: Looking for work? Where did all the jobs go?

It's funny how no one talks about why we don't have a lot of jobs left in the U.S. for every educational level.

jsonline: U.S. employers pulled back on hiring in April for the second straight month, a sobering reminder that the economy remains weak. The unemployment rate fell to 8.1%, but only because more people gave up looking for work.

The Labor Department said Friday that the economy added just 115,000 jobs in April. That's below March's upwardly revised 154,000 jobs and far fewer than the pace from earlier this year.

Here's another clip from the old Lou Dobbs show back in 2005, in the middle of the Bush years, that focused on the disappearing middle class. Interviewed; Greg Spotts, author of the book, American Jobs, who offers up some of the ways the U.S. could have had free trade agreements that worked.

We were warned back in 2005, and now we're seeing the results of NAFTA and CAFTA.



An archive surreal bonus: Bay Buchanan, no lefty, complaining about flat wages, shifting jobs overseas, and a warning about passing CAFTA. What was she smoking that day...?

Trade Deals that Offshore Jobs Get GOP Nod! Republicans Oppose Job training for Displaced American Workers.

Did you know it cost the government money to retrain displaced American workers whose jobs are outsourced? An outrageous idea when we have huge deficits, right? Republicans think so.

WashingtonPost: The Obama administration and congressional leaders are nearing consensus on three pending trade agreements and the renewal of support for workers who have been displaced by global trade … But the controversy over the U.S. deficit has stalled the deals, with Republicans opposing renewal of the billion-dollar-a-year Trade Adjustment Assistance program. The Obama administration has said it would not submit the trade pacts unless the assistance program is reauthorized to help workers hurt by outsourcing or increased imports."

Any trade deal that knowingly anticipates American job losses is a non-starter for me right out of the gate. Think about it; what jobs are out there right now for the average worker? 

But pushing well beyond losing jobs, the GOP opposes help for workers hurt by outsourcing or increased imports. The Republicans again have betrayed all voters, shifting the blame by asking, " where are the jobs Mr. President." And conservative voters don’t seem to care either because they too believe that somewhere over the rainbow the corporate promise of jobs is a sure thing. It hasn’t been since NAFTA.  Since George Bush became president, 11 million manufacturing jobs have disappeared, while Wall Street and Big Business promised jobs, jobs, jobs if they continued to get deregulation and tax cuts.

How’d that work out for us so far?  

The Outsourcing Facts about Offshoring.

Not sure about the Democratic whining about outsourcing?

Ed Schultz talks to Scott Paul, of the American Alliance for American Manufacturing, who reveals a few important facts. Is he liberal, and can you believe him? Want to take your chances and gamble with American jobs?